The biggest mistake we can make as advertisers is to judge advertising as lay people judge it. In doing so, we will end up as artist or entertainers, but not sales people. When ordinary folks talk about advertising, they talk about the ads or commercials that are the funniest, the most entertaining, or the most unusual or provocative. But the goal of advertising is not to be liked, to entertain, or to win advertising awards, it is to sell products. The advertiser, if he is smart, doesn’t care whether people like his/her commercials or are entertained or amused by them. If they are, fine. Commercials are a means to an end, and the end is increased sales and profits for the advertiser.
This is a simple and obvious thing, but the majority of advertising professionals seem to ignore it. They produce artful ads, stunningly beautiful catalogs, and commercials whose artistic quality rivals the finest feature films. But they sometimes lose sight of their goals.
Being artistic in nature, advertising writers naturally like ads that are aesthetically pleasing, as do advertising artists. But just because an ad is pretty and pleasant to read doesn’t necessarily mean it is persuading people to buy the product. Sometimes cheaply produced ads, written simply and directly without a lot of fluff, do the best job of selling.
That does not mean that ads should be “schlock” or that schlock always sells best. The look, tone, and image of your advertising should be dictated by the product and your prospects and not by what is fashionable in the advertising business at the time, or is aesthetically pleasing to artistic people who deliberately shun selling as if it were an unwholesome chore to be avoided at all costs.
Credits to Robert W. Bly Author The Copywriters Handbook 3rd Edition.
